ISRO Earns Respect + Revenue...
The space program also envisioned enhancing capabilities in the areas of satellite communications, navigation, Earth observation, and human space flight, in addition to pursuing research in space science, astronomy and planetary exploration, he said. ISRO’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) is capable of putting into orbit a 500 kg payload to undertake a mission to Mars.
The Planetary Society has announced LightSail, a plan to sail a spacecraft on sunlight alone by the end of 2010. The new solar sail project, boosted by a US$1 million anonymous donation, was unveiled on the 75th anniversary of the birth of Planetary Society co-founder Carl Sagan, a long-time advocate of solar sailing.
LightSail is an innovative program that will launch three separate spacecraft over the course of several years, beginning with LightSail-1, which will demo that sunlight alone can propel a spacecraft in Earth orbit. LightSails-2 and 3, more ambitious still, will reach farther into space. Taking advantage of the technological advances in micro- and nano-spacecraft over the past five years, The Planetary Society will build LightSail-1 with three Cubesat spacecraft. One Cubesat will form the central electronics and control module, and two additional Cubesats will house the solar sail module. Cameras, additional sensors, and a control system will be added to the basic Cubesat electronics bus.
LightSail-1 will have four triangular sails, arranged in a diamond shape resembling a giant kite. Constructed of 32 square meters of mylar, LightSail-1 will be placed in an orbit over 800 kilometers above Earth, high enough to escape the drag of Earth’s uppermost atmosphere. At that altitude the spacecraft will be subject only to the force of gravity keeping it in orbit and the pressure of sunlight on its sails increasing the orbital energy.
Lightsail-2 will demonstrate a longer duration flight to higher Earth orbits. LightSail-3 will go to the Sun-Earth Libration Point, L1, where solar sails could be permanently placed as solar weather stations, monitoring the geomagnetic storms from the Sun that potentially endanger electrical grids and satellite systems around Earth. James Cantrell, CEO of Strategic Space Inc, is Project Manager of LightSail-1. Stellar Exploration will build the spacecraft in San Luis Obispo, California. Other team participants include the Cubesat development group at California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo, and a team at Russia’s Space Research Institute.
NTS NanoSat Monitors Illegal Fishing For Canadian Forces
“We are pleased our technology has been able to contribute to international efforts to ensure sustainable fishing practices,” said Peter Mabson, President of exactEarth. “This project illustrates just one of the many applications made possible by the exactAIS capability to detect ships from space rapidly over a wide area.”
The NTS nanosatellite was launched in April, 2008, to validate COM DEV’s space-based AIS technology. Having successfully completed its original mission, the 8-kilogram spacecraft continues to orbit the Earth every 90 minutes and remains fully functional. IUU monitoring represents the first time exactEarth’s AIS solution, exactAIS, has been deployed for operational, rather than demonstration purposes.
Shrinking Swedish Satellites In Space!
ÅAC Microtec in Sweden tests miniaturized satellite systems in space, and for the second time in 2009, they will fly their revolutionary microsystem-based components in space. On Wednesday, September 23rd, an Indian PSLV launcher brought AAC’s miniaturized computers, control systems, and mass memories to test in their real working environment. ÅAC Microtec is the first company in the world to demonstrate a 3D-wafer level packaged (3D-WLP) microelectronic and MEMS equipped nanosatellite in space. ÅAC Microtec has, together with RUAG Space (ex. Saab Space), developed an advanced nanosatellite architecture based on a plug-and-play concept for rapid response and scientific satellites on behalf of the German company group, OHB Systems in Bremen.
“This is the first time that a nano-satellite system entirely built in a 3D-packaging technology is demonstrated in space. Through INOVATOR, we demonstrate the basis for the small satellites of the future: the total mass of our subsystems is only 120 grams! This is a revolution which makes it possible in the future to fly very advanced instruments on small satellites since the control electronics becomes so small,” says Robert Thorslund, Project Manager at ÅAC Microtec.
“RUAG Space has contributed with their long experience of designing space electronics and specifically mass storage memories. It has been of particular interest to see if ÅAC’s technology could be useful in hybrid solutions where parts of existing designs are miniaturized. We have successfully integrated and tested ÅAC’s technology in our labs in Göteborg. It will be exciting to see how the systems will perform in space,” says Lars Nordfeldt, Director of Communications at RUAG Space.
The launch of RubinSat 9.2 was performed as a piggyback service with the research satellite Ocean-Sat 2, launched from India on September 23rd. The launcher was a Polar Launch Service Vehicle (PLSV-C14). The INOVATOR-experiment has been financed by the Swedish National Space Board and was been developed under a three-year schedule. PSLV-C14 also carried the 960 kg indigenous Oceansat 2 and six other nano satellites, including four Cubesats and two Rubinsats. Oceansat 2 is the 16th Indian remote sensing satellite and is a cuboid with two solar panels projecting from the sides.
ISRO To Receive Nano
The satellite, designed and developed by a group of students of the institute, will be handed over to ISRO, which is expected to launch it by the end of the year. “This satellite will have specific function of sending imagery on ground conditions. We will set up a tracking station in our institute where we will get the real-time data on drought, flood, vegetation and forestation,” IIT Kanpur Director Prof. S. G. Dhande said. The nanosatellite, which will be named ‘Jugnu’ (in English, Firefly), will have a mass of less than 10 kg. It will piggyback on larger launches, avoiding the need for a dedicated launch.
PacTel Int’l Mobile Network Launch In Funafuti
Simeti Lopati, CEO of Tuvalu Telecom Corporation expressed his pleasure in Pactel’s solution and its tailored ability to serve the needs of the people of Funafuti:
“Tuvalu Telecom is grateful to Pactel International for the assistance it provided in restoring our mobile phone service. Despite a number of geographical and environmental challenges, Pactel International managed to design and install a GSM network solution, optimal to our needs. This solution has noticeably improved Tuvalu Telecom’s services and financial situations. I believe that this is a beginning of a long and mutually beneficial partnership with Pactel International, which will prosper into the future.”
SSTL Launches Satellites x 2 For Disaster Determination
Both satellites will bring significant enhancements to the DMC, which provides Earth observation imagery for a range of commercial and environmental applications as well as to the International Charter: Space and Major Disasters. The first satellite in the DMC, AlSAT-1, was launched in 2002 and with the addition of these further two satellites, the total number of operational DMC “eyes in the sky” has been increased to six.
UK-DMC2 and Deimos-1 were designed and built by SSTL at the Company’s state-of-the-art facilities in Guildford U.K. Deimos-1 was manufactured for Spanish customer, Deimos Space, while UK-DMC2 is owned by SSTL and will be operated by the Company’s subsidiary, DMCii. The latest spacecraft continue SSTL’s rapid advances in innovative space solutions with each satellite having ten times the capability of the satellites launched just five years ago.
SSTL’s Chairman, Sir Martin Sweeting, commented, “These latest two satellites will advance the capability of the DMC, an international constellation conceived and established by SSTL to provide affordable Earth observation space assets to all, and continue to demonstrate the commercial value of space as evidenced by SSTL’s investment in UK-DMC2. The launch is also timely as the U.K. Government has just launched the Space Innovation & Growth Team (IGT) tasked with creating a 20-year strategy for the space industry that will build Britain’s leadership in space. SSTL welcomes the initiative and is represented on the team.”
UK-DMC2 and Deimos-1 were launched alongside four other satellites onboard the Dnepr launch vehicle: DubaiSat-1, AprizeSat-3, AprizeSat-4 and Nanosat-1B.
SES — Purchase Of Protostar 2
Boeing — GOES-14 Enters Full Service
On December 16, Boeing shipped the third satellite, GOES-P, from the company’s satellite integration and test complex in El Segundo to Cape Canaveral, where it will undergo final preparations for launch early next year. GOES-P will be launched aboard a Delta IV rocket procured from United Launch Alliance through Boeing’s commercial launch business, Boeing Launch Services. The launch is planned for February 25 from Cape Canaveral’s Space Launch Complex 37.
Intelsat — Etisalat Signs On With IS-15
DigitalGlobe — WorldView-2 Is Engaged
The satellite completed its commissioning process, enabling DigitalGlobe to begin start taking orders for WorldView-2 imagery from its global resellers, partners, and customers. WorldView-2 joins DigitalGlobe’s existing sub-meter satellites on orbit, QuickBird and WorldView-1, to enable an annual imaging capacity equivalent to three times the earth’s land mass. WorldView-2 collects multispectral imagery at 1.8 meter resolution and panchromatic imagery at 0.46 meters.
NASA — A Moving Experience To AMC 3
Effective January 16, 2010, NASA Television’s Public, Education and Media channels will be available for downlink on Americom’s AMC 3 satellite. Additionally, NASA TV has reformatted its online program schedule to improve its readability. Satellite and cable service providers, broadcasters, and educational and scientific institutions will need to re-tune their receiving devices to Americom’s AMC 3 to continue accessing NASA TV for distribution. News networks, their reporters and other broadcast media organizations must tune their satellite receivers to the Media Channel to ensure reception of clean feeds for all mission coverage, news conferences, and other agency distributed news and information. News and other media organizations will no longer be able to rely on content from the Public Channel for clean feeds of mission and other agency activities. NASA TV’s occasional HD feed and Live Interactive Media Outlet (LIMO) Channel also will migrate to AMC 3. For complete downlink information, select this direct link.
SSPI — Significant Survey
- The satellite industry is not a “graying” business. The age distribution of satellite professionals is remarkably even, with 43 percent of respondents between the ages of 18 and 39 and 80 percent of respondents under the age of 54.
- The industry pays satellite industry employers to invest in training and development. Nearly 65 percent of employees who have 6-15 years in the industry have worked for their current employer 6-15 years.
- The industry suffers from striking gender disparity that is unlikely to improve soon. Approximately 80 percent of industry employees are male, and the proportions hold up across all ages, though not across all job functions.
- People who work in the industry are proud to recognize it as a distinct sector of the global telecom industry. A large majority, when asked what they do for a living, say “I work in the satellite industry.”
“There have been a lot of anecdotal assumptions about the satellite industry workforce, but no hard numbers backing or refuting any of those to date,” said Tamara Bond, SSPI Membership Director and author of the report. “In order to better support the professional development needs of the industry, SSPI felt it was imperative to first look at the make-up of the industry and gain insight into those who call themselves ‘satellite professionals’. The survey yielded a wealth of information about the people we work with as well as the apparent health and stability of the industry, at least from the viewpoint of the employees.” The report and a video with the author are available by selecting the above graphic.
TriaGnoSys — Certainly Is Up In The Air
At the conclusion of the NEWSKY project, TriaGnoSys demo’d its communications suite using a simulated flight from Europe to the U.S. Throughout the flight, either a satellite or a terrestrial link was automatically selected, depending on operational preferences and the availability of links, resulting in a seamless handover between the networks ensuring session continuity. TriaGnoSys’ ATM communications suite provides both voice and data communications, as well as weather map downloads. A central feature of the suite is the use of IPv6, combined with TriaGnoSys’ VoCeM compression and optimization technology.
Ariane 5 — Oui! Eye Spy In The Sky As French Helios 2B Launches
Chairman and CEO Jean-Yves Le Gall said these missions “underscore the strategic nature” of Arianespace’s role as a launch services provider, and confirms the access to space provided by a system that is backed by European governments and its space industry. During the past 30 years, our company has launched 277 satellites — 32 of which were for the requirements of European defense. We have 10 new contracts signed in 2009 — soon 11 — and we once again lead the pack, and our order book guarantees the launch rate of six to seven Ariane 5s annually for the years to come.”
“Thales Alenia Space has produced all the high-resolution instruments for Helios satellites since 1993,” said Reynald Seznec, President and CEO of Thales Alenia Space. “By drawing on our expertise in optical engineering and industrial facilities that are unrivaled in Europe, we have developed instruments that are increasingly sophisticated and also provide greater and greater precision in terms of both spatial and spectral resolution. Thales Alenia Space has the capabilities needed to remain the trusted partner of the French Ministry of Defence in the coming years, for both observation and communications applications.”
Lockheed Martin’s GOES-R Gets The Go
United Launch Alliance — NASA’s WISE Wins Its Freedom
United Launch Alliance capped 2009 with the launch of a Delta II carrying NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) spacecraft on December the 17th. Rocketing from Space Launch Complex-2, the launch was the eighth Delta II of 2009 and represents the 37th successful mission launched by United Launch Alliance in its first 36 months of operation. WISE will scan the entire sky using an infrared telescope with sensitivity hundreds of times greater than ever before possible, picking up the glow of hundreds of millions of objects and producing millions of images. The mission will uncover objects never seen, including the coolest stars, the universe’s most luminous galaxies and some of the darkest near-Earth asteroids and comets.
Lockheed Martin — GPS2+ Conveyed To Inmarsat
Lockheed Martin has completed site acceptance testing over the Inmarsat-4 satellite network and delivered the Global Satellite Phone Service (GSPS) gateway in Subic Bay to Inmarsat. This is the final major delivery for the GSPS program contract that was awarded to Lockheed Martin in December 2006. In addition, Lockheed Martin successfully implemented and integrated the evolution of the Global Mobile Radio (GMR2) standard to GMR2+, providing improved performance and features over the prior generation of Lockheed Martin gateway products.
ESA — Gaia To Glean Galaxy Goodies
NASA | NOAA — GOES-P Enters Post Storage Testing Phase
Once in geosynchronous orbit, GOES-P will be designated GOES-15 and NASA will provide on-orbit checkout and then transfer operational responsibility to NOAA. GOES-P will be placed in on-orbit storage as a replacement for an older GOES satellite. GOES-P is the third and last spacecraft to be launched in the GOES N-P series of geostationary environmental weather satellites. The GOES satellites continuously provide observations of 60 percent of the Earth including the continental United States, providing weather monitoring and forecast operations, as well as a continuous and reliable stream of environmental information and severe weather warnings. GOES-P carries an advanced attitude control system using star trackers and Hemispherical Inertial Reference Units. The GOES-P image navigation has an accuracy of about 2 km from an orbit altitude of about 22,300 miles, or 35,700 km and only differs from GOES-O in the channel configuration for the solar Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) telescope.
Boeing And ILS — Proton Takes Off On A Breeze And Brings TV DIRECTly To U.S. ILS Proton successfully launched the DIRECTV 12 satellite for DIRECTV on December 29, 2009 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. International Launch Services (ILS) and Boeing have been working diligently to ensure the successful launch of the DIRECTV 12 satellite into orbit, which occurred from Pad 39 at the Cosmodrome at 6:22 a.m. local time (7:22 p.m. EDT, 00:22 GMT). Boeing received the first on-orbit signals of the satellite, wich weighs more than 5.9 metric tons, from the satellites nine hours after its launch into geostationary transfer orbit, indicating that the satellite is healthy and operating normally.
Handover of DIRECTV 12 is scheduled for early 2010. Together with DIRECTV 10 and 11, the new satellite will help significantly expand DIRECTV’s HDTV broadcasting to consumers across the contiguous United States, Hawaii and Alaska.
This was the seventh and final commercial launch of 2009 for ILS and the 56th ILS Proton launch, overall. ILS Proton launched the DIRECTV 10 satellite just two years ago, fully demonstrating the enhanced Proton capability, which became the standard configuration for future missions. This was the 351st launch for the Proton, following the landmark 350th Proton launched just two weeks earlier on 14 December. The Proton Breeze M vehicle is developed and built by Khrunichev Research and Production Space Center of Moscow, one of the pillars of the Russian space industry.
“DIRECTV placed their trust and confidence in ILS two years ago with a very significant launch with the DIRECTV 10 satellite. At that time, it was the largest satellite launched by Proton, demonstrating the increased capabilities of the vehicle. Now, with DIRECTV 12, DIRECTV once again entrusted their business to us with the continuation of this successful partnership. We are very proud to play a significant role in the expansion of digital television services in the United States with DIRECTV,” said ILS President Frank McKenna.
“At DIRECTV, we are proud to say that we have had many successful firsts, including the introduction of HD. We relied on ILS Proton in 2007 to launch DIRECTV 10 and knew that the same professionalism and flawless technical performance would be applied to the launch of DIRECTV 12. We thank the entire mission team from ILS, DIRECTV and Boeing, for their dedication and commitment to this launch,” said Jim Butterworth, DIRECTV Senior Vice President of Engineering and Operations.”